Tyler Perry Defends Casting Kim Kardashian

Filmmaker Tyler Perry has been criticized for casting Kim Kardashian in an upcoming film, and Movieline reports he’s taken to his blog to explain why the 31-year-old reality star landed the role.

After news broke last month that Perry had cast non-actor Kardashian in his new project, “The Marriage Counselor,” he says the outcry poured into his inbox.

But Perry explains that he cast Kardashian because she has the potential to be a role model, and asks fans to hear out his reasoning.

“I thought and still do think, that it would be very responsible of her to be a part of this film,” Perry writes on his blog. “To have the young people that look up to her, see her in a film that is about what happens in life when you make the wrong choices.”

“The Marriage Counselor” has a younger cast, and tackles issues like marital relationships and faith.

Perry says that he was looking to cast someone that young people look up to “long before I even heard about Kim’s marriage or divorce,” and a producer told him about Kardashian and her “millions” of fans. (He also notes she has a fairly small role in the film.)

“If one of those young people see this film and find the strength to live a better life and not go through what these characters went through in this movie, then we have all done what I feel I’m being led to do here,” Perry explains. “I hope you understand. I really do!”

The filmmaker ends his entry on a spiritual note, asking, “why wouldn’t Kim Kardashian be invited into a film about Faith, Forgiveness and the healing power of God? What is wrong with that??”

Kardashian’s part on “The Marriage Counselor” has wrapped; the movie is due to hit theaters sometime next year.